Complementary Pet Care

Like many allopathic physicians, conventional veterinarians are also integrating complementary pet care approaches into their practices.

Dr. Cheryl Cross Holistic Veterinary Care offers laser therapy, acupuncture, rehabilitation, herbal medicine and more in an extremely welcoming practice. Her positivity toward both the pet and the owner bring hope to those who often have very little.

Since beginning her private practice in 2009, she has seen pets with a variety of maladies. Cross has treated everything from cats who have lost the ability to walk to canine companions with digestive upset.

Despite seeing pets with debilitating issues, Cross has found that there are always options and is able to provide her clients (including this writer) with the peace of mind that there is always something left to try for their beloved pet.

“What I love about the practice that I have is that there is an option for every illness,” says Cross. “It doesn’t mean that it will be a miraculous healing, but you will never be out of options.”In a traditional practice, options are limited to specific drug therapies that may not be the right fit for your animal.

“In traditional medicine they may say ‘here is what you do’ and if that thing is too expensive or your dog can’t tolerate it, then you are out of options. That never has to be the case with herbal medicine.”.

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The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Lifestyle and Complementary Therapies Tackle Health Problems

Super Bowl LII is just a few days away and New England Patriot’s QB will again take snaps at this grand event. Brady, 42, released his TB12 healthy lifestyle book in 2017. Brady has also taken the spotlight for his high performance lifestyle. However, Brady is not the only Patriot to challenge conventional wisdom… and to demonstrate that lifestyle and complementary therapies tackle health problems.

But in the weeks leading up to Sunday’s game, it’s been a different New England Patriot that has been capturing the lion’s share of attention for his commitment to holistic health: linebacker James Harrison, who, at 39, is the oldest defensive player in professional football. In an intimate interview with National Geographic that has quickly gone viral, Harrison detailed a $350,000-a-year “pre-habbing” and rehabbing regimen, which includes massage therapists, acupuncturists, cupping sessions, chiropractors, and a no alcohol, refined sugar, or processed carb diet to help his body recover from the daily punishment he endures on the the field. “All I know is before I get treated, I hurt, and after, I feel better,” Harrison says of the alternative and holistic protocols that are by no means standard in locker rooms, but are quickly gaining steam, thanks to pioneers like Brady—and a new demand for integrative therapies that are as beneficial for those suffering from chronic injuries and illness as they are for those of us simply hoping to live a better, more balanced life (for slightly less than six figures).

Whether you’re a pro athlete taking blindside hits, or, say, a working expectant mother, “the pathways to health erosion are very similar,” says Erika Schwartz, M.D., an integrative medicine doctor and the CEO of New York’s Evolved Science, a concierge medical service that specializes in rejuvenation and disease prevention. Those pathways are often lined in stress, sedentary lifestyles, and sugar, Schwartz continues, noting that an unprocessed diet that doesn’t deprive you, but helps your metabolism function properly—coupled with an exercise routine grounded in moderation—are key to staving off disease, inflammation, and aging. In other words, taking key cues from pro-level nutrition and cardio is a universally sound investment.

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The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Benefits of Cupping Therapy

When discussing benefits we must be careful not to separate a therapy like Cupping from a medical system like Traditional Chinese Medicine. There may well be benefits of cupping therapy (like breaking up Qi stagnation) that do not fit with another system. That said, the article’s author gives a quick overview of benefits from cupping therapy that most Westerners will appreciate:

1. Pain relief

2. Relieve cold, cough and allergy symptoms

3. Promotes relaxation

4. Detoxifying

5. Inducing inflammation to heal injuries faster

6. Improve skin conditions

7. Relieving digestive disorders

8. Anti-Aging

9. Treating carpal tunnel syndrome

Cupping involves heating up small glass cups and then putting them onto the skin, and pulling them away from the body to help loosen and relax muscles by promoting blood flow.

It seems to be working. The U.S. men’s gymnastics team finished second during the qualifying round at the 2016 Olympics, and swim team members Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian, who also uses cupping, managed to secure gold medals in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

Many massage therapists and other alternative health practitioners are including it as part of their practice. It makes sense as cupping is kind of the inverse of massage. Instead of apply pressure to muscles, the suction uses pressure to pull the skin, tissue and muscles upward. It’s a practice that was developed thousands of years ago, and while techniques have been modernized, the original philosophy is still the same.

Olympic athletes certainly aren’t the only ones to experience the many benefits of cupping, famous celebrities like actress Gwyneth Paltrow walked the red carpet with noticeable cupping marks on her back, and former “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston wore a strapless black dress to a movie premiere recently that showed cupping marks too.

Our Model

The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

What Is Cupping?

Cupping has been around for millennia in the Middle East and Asia. However, Western nations have only begun to embrace cupping. So what is cupping and why does it work? Explanations range from massaging sore muscles to flow of Qi. Here are some highlights from an article from the University of Minnesota’s University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing.

Cupping applies suction to the surface of the body to draw out pathogenic factors or to invigorate the flow of Qi at the surface of the body.

Cupping is usually done by inserting a flame into a small glass cup to remove the air and create a vacuum. The cup is then deftly inverted onto the surface of the body where the cup is held firmly in place by the suction created by the vacuum effect. This method is called “fire cupping.” There are also specially designed cups fitted with air lock valves that allow practitioners to remove the air with a hand-held pump.

Frequently, the practitioner will apply a lubricant to the skin before placing the cups, and then move the cups back and forth across certain area of the body. This combines the effects of cupping with dermal friction therapy (gua sha) and is called “sliding cup” technique.

Our Model

The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Popular Alternative Healing Therapies

Trying to stay healthy has been with us since the dawn of Humanity. Many popular alternative healing therapies have been around for thousands of years. Traditional Chinese Medicine like acupuncture and herbs started over 2,500 years ago. Ayurvedic Medicine started over 3,000 years ago in India. We exist at a great time because there are now more choices for health than ever. With education and awareness, these ancient therapies as well as modern gizmos and conventional allopathic medicine can all work together.

Alternative Healing Therapies are healing methodologies that differ from the usual line of treatment than that of a doctor. In other words therapeutic practices that are currently not considered as an integral part of conventional medical practice are classified as alternate healing therapies or alternate medicine. Many a times the benefits and healing abilities of these therapies are established through research, other times they may be unproven scientifically. With alternate healing therapies, healing, treatment and cure may be achieved through diet, self healing mechanism of the human body, various energies, herbal and other supplements and much more.

Over the last couple of decades there has been a renewed interest in holistic and natural healing and thus various alternative healing therapies have found acceptance and are getting popular both in India and world over.

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The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Tried Cupping

Cupping seems like one of those things that can’t work. Just too easy. Yet many Olympic athletes and Hollywood stars have tried cupping and marvel at its benefits.

It’s the secret to Michael Phelps recovery and Gwyneth’s detox routine. But does cupping really work, and how long do those marks last? One writer goes in deep.

The use of cups allows for the stretching and opening of muscle tissue, creating space to drain toxins from your cells, he [Pourziaee] explains. “By manually going in and moving things around, you’re able to push toxins from those cells into the lymphatic system,” Dr. Pourziaee explains. “Your body naturally does that — your lymphatic system is your body’s filter. But this is a catalyst to give that natural detoxification process a boost.”

Define these so-called “toxins,” you say? “They’re either water soluble or fat soluble, and can come from the environment around you, processed foodsyou eat, or chemical additives that accumulate in your blood,” Dr. Pourziaee says. “Usually if they’re water soluble, you will naturally urinate them out within 24 to 48 hours. But the ones that are fat soluble stay in and around your fat cells. Those are usually the ones that need an extra boost to get out.”

And an experienced cupping practitioner can help guide them, he says. “In your upper body, your major lymph nodes are under your armpits, so most of the time the cups are moved toward that region. In your lower extremities, your major lymph nodes are in the groin area.”

Our Model

The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Try Cupping

Our bodies produce toxins and other imbalances as part of daily activity. We are pretty good at getting rid of those toxins and maintaining some balance throughout the body. However, more and more people have decided to try cupping as a low-risk added measure to help their health.

For many of us, the new year is a traditional time to set goals and enjoy an increased openness to new experiences. This willingness presents an opportunity to explore the benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Better health is on everyone’s list for the new year and cupping is wonderful technique that can improve your health and provide numerous benefits.

One way to think about cupping is that it is the inverse of massage. Rather than applying pressure to muscles, the suction uses pressure to pull skin, tissue and muscles upward. I often combine cupping with acupuncture into one treatment, but it could also be used alone.

Cupping was developed thousands of years ago and though the techniques have modernized, the original philosophy remains the same.

Our Model

The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Wellness Moonshot

No disrespect to former US Vice President Biden but if we are going to have a “moonshot” in healthcare then why not prevent the preventable? A Wellness Moonshot would focus on preventing infectious and Lifestyle diseases. Not only are these good odds but they cost pennies on the dollar and help people avoid illness in the first place!

“It’s the right idea at the right time,” said pioneering integrative cardiologist Dean Ornish, MD. He was speaking of the “Wellness Moonshot – A World Free of Preventable Disease” launched at the annual meeting of the Global Wellness Institute (GWI). “It is a much needed, organized way to create transformation. It’s the right idea at the right time.”

Ornish was not the only voice associated with the integrative health world cited in GWI’s media release on the initiative. Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show and a surgery professor at Columbia University, urged the crowd of roughly 600 largely business leaders in health and wellness toward a deep commitment: “We have to be brave enough to take on this moonshot – we need to really accelerate (the focus on prevention).”

Susie Ellis, the chair and CEO of the not-for-profit GWI cast the campaign in bold terms: ““The time has come to pool our resources—knowledge, access, funding—and use our collective megaphone on the world stage to work towards achieving a world free of preventable disease. Unlike President Kennedy’s famous moonshot to send a man to the moon, where it was clear when the ‘mission was accomplished’ – this moonshot will require not one, but many incremental steps forward for humankind.”

An Investment in Health… Not Medicine

Clinical factors determine 6-20% of our health yet we spend 90% of our “health care” dollars for clinical expenses (in case you didn’t know read this). There is an epidemic of chronic diseases throughout the US and other Western countries. 80% of those chronic diseases could be prevented with better Lifestyle decisions (in case you didn’t know read this). Medicine is good and necessary but medicine is not the only thing that determines our health. The US relies on clinical treatments that have been widely ineffective in treating Lifestyle diseases. So we just call them “chronic” illnesses and move on instead of investing in their prevention… resources for Lifestyle management, proper food on our tables, even simple awareness and support. As Susie Ellis said, a Wellness Moonshot will take “many incremental steps forward for humankind.” Let’s go!!!

Our Model

The HealthCare Too model provides for a collaborative holistic care approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Alternative Medicine Is Complementary

There has been an evolution in US consumer attitudes around health and a revolution in consumer actions. Therapies that have produced results for centuries and millennia like acupuncture, yoga, and tai chi now appear in conventional medicine. Once separated from mainstream medicine, alternative medicine is complementary to many conventional practices.

Health systems add alternative therapies to traditional offerings.

How about laughter yoga to help lower your blood pressure? Or acupuncture to help manage chronic lower back pain? Expectant moms can take advantage of aromatherapy to help elevate mood and feel comfortable and calm. You might even find that most of these therapies are covered by your health insurance.

These alternatives and others, sometimes referred to as complementary or integrative medicine, are finding homes regionally in more conventional settings at Essentia and St. Luke’s health systems. It’s a local trend that reflects what’s happening nationally. This is occurring even while some in the medical industry say these therapies have little or no scientific backing.

Dr. Steven Novella, a professor of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, said in the article that by promoting such therapies, physicians are forfeiting “any claim that we had to being a science-based profession.”

At the same time, the article does acknowledge, “modern medicine clearly can’t cure everyone,” and quotes Dr. Linda Lee, a gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins. “Yes, as scientists we want to be rigid. But me, as a physician, I want to find what’s best for a patient. Who am I to say that’s hogwash?”

Lee, and several local health system sources, also note that most of these alternative therapies supplement, but don’t necessarily replace, conventional treatments. In addition, sources say these therapies are gaining acceptance by the medical community, health insurance plans and, maybe most importantly, the public.

You Have Been Heard!

Consumers have been silent partners in conventional Western medicine for decades. In the early 1900’s the leading causes of death and infirmity were infectious diseases (like pneumonia) and trauma (like injuries from accidents). Following “doctor’s orders” made sense to treat these curable condition. In the 2000’s, however, we face an epidemic of chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Unlike the health issues of the early 1900’s, 80% of chronic diseases can be prevented with Lifestyle choices like diet, mindfulness, social interactions, and more. Consumers now look for more in their Lifestyle. They want “clean foods” and yoga and acupuncture… not just pills and procedures. With consumer demand, alternative medicine is complementary throughout the US healthcare system, whether national payers or local providers.

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The HealthCare Too model provides for a holistic approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!

Lifestyle Medicine And Its Dramatic Impact

As a rule in the Perry Household we generally support each other through good times and bad. There is an exception to the rule… when Tim (Dad) finds evidence that he is “right”. That usually means lectures punctuated with “this makes so much sense… why did it take so long” or “this has been intuitively obvious for thousands of years.” Luckily it doesn’t happen often (just kidding, Dad).

A new article from Sept 20, 21017 in The Permanente Journal has laid bare many of the problems in conventional Western medicine (and, as we always say, there is much positive in conventional Western medicine as well but there must be a more holistic approach to the person).

It starts with a pretty brazen statement:

By ignoring the root causes of disease and neglecting to prioritize lifestyle measures for prevention, the medical community is placing people at harm. Advanced nations, influenced by a Western lifestyle, are in the midst of a health crisis, resulting largely from poor lifestyle choices. Epidemiologic, ecologic, and interventional studies have repeatedly indicated that most chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, are the result of lifestyles fueled by poor nutrition and physical inactivity.

But that is just the warm-up:

Currently, multiple forces maintaining the status quo exist at the systemic level. Special interest groups, including certain lobbyists, maintain barriers by spending monies to influence governmental and professional targets. For example, national dietary guidelines are watered down out of a concern over the economic interests of certain industries instead of reflecting on the evidence-based recommendations regarding the consumption of meat and dairy products. On the societal level, the hedonistic aspects of food are promoted over their health and nutritional aspects.

And just in case there was any doubt:

Lifestyle medicine addresses principles that are the cornerstone of health and well- being. The current practice of prescribing medications or performing surgery for nearly every illness must be revisited. A paradigm shift to lifestyle medicine needs urgent implementation. Dramatic effects using lifestyle interventions have been demonstrated in patients with chronic conditions. Several large studies have conclusively shown that diet and exercise modifications not only substantially improve long-term survival but also result in a portrait more nearly approaching total health. As an example, a prospective study of 23,000 participants evaluated adherence to 4 simple recommendations: No tobacco use, 30 minutes of exercise 5 times per week, maintaining a BMI of less than 30 kg/m2, and eating a healthy diet as previously described. Participants who adhered to these 4 recommendations had an overall 78% decreased risk of development of a chronic condition during an 8-year timeframe. Furthermore, in participants adhering to these recommendations, there was a 93% reduced risk of diabetes mellitus, an 81% reduced risk of myocardial infarction, and a 36% reduction in the risk of the development of cancer.

Holistic Health

What we do outside the clinic walls bears heavily on our health. We are pretty comfortable that our use of “holistic health” fits in with Lifestyle Medicine. Holistic Health requires an open-mindedness to look at therapies that 1) do no harm, 2) fit your Lifestyle and Beliefs, and 3) offer you a benefit. Our challenge HealthCare Too are the ABCs of Holistic Health:

Our Model

The HealthCare Too model provides for a holistic approach to health. We look for articles and knowledge to help consumers and their care teams make holistic health decisions and also shop for the best deals in holistic health so you can find them here! We appreciate the value of surgery and pharmaceuticals but want to make more paths available for your HealthCare Too. See our model for Holistic Health for more information!